Gunther Steiner: Ferrari’s engine could be better than Mercedes

Haas Team Principle Gunther Steiner weighs in on the top of the pack in 2017’s Formula One – and it looks like Mercedes might finally be topped.

In the fallout of the Australian GP, there is one story that has rose above all others: the growing tale that Ferrari will be the team to beat Mercedes this year. After the performance turned in by Sebastian Vettel in Australia, many spectators were gripped by the sensation that this may finally be the year in which the crimson team bests the Silver Arrows, toppling their winning streak. Much to the joy of Ferrari fans worldwide, bigwigs inside of F1 have commented positively on Ferrari’s package, believing that they have something truly spectacular.

The newest addition to the pack of proponents is Haas Team Principal Gunther Steiner, whose team fields a Ferrari-supplied engine:

“With the engine, there is not just one area that is better, it’s the whole package that has improved from last year. It’s now as competitive as a Mercedes engine, if not better.

Ferrari won in Australia, but everybody is developing and trying to get better. It’s always going to be a development race. They’ve made a good step, and without that help from Ferrari, we wouldn’t be where we are.”

– Gunther Steiner

While Ferrari and Vettel’s performance have been highly lauded since they stole their first podium in Australia in over a decade, Haas’ first outing in the 2017 season has been nothing to scoff at. Taking 6th with Romain Grosjean, the American outfit has done pretty well for itself, and Steiner heeds that bigger things are on the horizon:

“We are cautiously optimistic. We need to still prove that our performance wasn’t a one-off.

It’s very tight in the midfield. On a good day, you could be on top, but on a bad day, you could be at the back.

The other midfield teams have shown that this can happen.”

– Gunther Steiner

Without jumping too deeply into the speculation pool, we could be at a turning point sooner than we realise in the F1 2017 standings.

Nikola is a carbon-based life-form residing on Earth dimension C-137. Lover of all things fast and furious. When he's not tapping away at a keyboard, he can be found aimlessly drifting in cyberspace, looking for signs of intelligent life.